kyoshidog
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 14, 2007
- Messages
- 49
- Location
- Sandy Oregon
- Occupation
- I am a career fire fighter in the Portland area (s
I recently completed a job for a builder at his own house and am having some trouble getting him to pay. He thinks the bill is too high and I wanted to see if I could get some feedback here, maybe he's right but I don't think so!
The job was initially to be to expose one wall of his full basement for access to waterproof it (by a different contractor) and to place a foundation drain along that side only. This is an old home (50+ is my guess) and the wall is about 60' long, had to dig about 7' down for access. I told him that time and materials would be $2000-$2500 for that part ($100 hr for hoe, $45 for laborers, $80 for truck). The area was tight and access was a real problem which made it slow going. After exposing the basement he had a fit because the wall was in poor shape, formed on 1 side only and very crumbly. The waterproofer wouldn't guarantee the work unless he had the wall parged and coated so the HO elected not to use them. TO make a long story short, the job evolved into us placing a rubber membrane along this wall, digging a curtain drain on the adjoining side and placing a drain in it, hard piping a new rain drain on 2 sides of the house, hauling off 1 load of dirt, bringing in 3 loads of rock, moving about 10 yards of dirt to a pile in his backyard with a loader, grading and graveling a parking area, and backfilling all the trenches, grading and then hand raking to finish. All the rock was unloaded directly from the truck to the trench by hoe (I should have conveyored it!) in order to minimize the mess and cleanup which added a few extra hours.
Bottom line, the total came out to around $9500 which included a fair ammount of hand digging and cleanup. Am I way out of line with this? I have kept meticoluos records documenting everything, all hours, materials etc. yet this client is sure he is being overcharged. I did not do any written change orders since he was out of town (bad mistake) when we finished the job. What do you guys think? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks
Karl In Portland Or.
The job was initially to be to expose one wall of his full basement for access to waterproof it (by a different contractor) and to place a foundation drain along that side only. This is an old home (50+ is my guess) and the wall is about 60' long, had to dig about 7' down for access. I told him that time and materials would be $2000-$2500 for that part ($100 hr for hoe, $45 for laborers, $80 for truck). The area was tight and access was a real problem which made it slow going. After exposing the basement he had a fit because the wall was in poor shape, formed on 1 side only and very crumbly. The waterproofer wouldn't guarantee the work unless he had the wall parged and coated so the HO elected not to use them. TO make a long story short, the job evolved into us placing a rubber membrane along this wall, digging a curtain drain on the adjoining side and placing a drain in it, hard piping a new rain drain on 2 sides of the house, hauling off 1 load of dirt, bringing in 3 loads of rock, moving about 10 yards of dirt to a pile in his backyard with a loader, grading and graveling a parking area, and backfilling all the trenches, grading and then hand raking to finish. All the rock was unloaded directly from the truck to the trench by hoe (I should have conveyored it!) in order to minimize the mess and cleanup which added a few extra hours.
Bottom line, the total came out to around $9500 which included a fair ammount of hand digging and cleanup. Am I way out of line with this? I have kept meticoluos records documenting everything, all hours, materials etc. yet this client is sure he is being overcharged. I did not do any written change orders since he was out of town (bad mistake) when we finished the job. What do you guys think? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks
Karl In Portland Or.